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It’s not unusual for patrons to ask us for advice on what to read next here at the Everett Public Library. The advice we give is called, in library jargon, ‘readers advisory.’ Sometimes, our dear library patrons will turn the tables on us and give us some readers advisory of their own, however.

A while back, as I was working at the checkout counter, an effusive patron handed me her library card and a book. Her friend had highly recommended the title and had said she’d laugh her a** off. “Oh, is that so,” I said in my best hair-in-a-bun-with-a-pencil-stuck-through-it voice. She was undaunted and said that there was another one on the shelf. With that, she dashed upstairs to the travel section.

Before I could protest, I was holding in my hand All Over the Place: Adventures in Travel, True Love and Petty Theft by Geraldine DeRuiter. I have to tell you, I never intended to read it. I was committed to a 600+ page tome that made my wrists hurt to hold at the time. But I started reading – just a little bit before it want back on the shelf – and I found I couldn’t stop. There is so much to love about this book. Deruiter’s easy-going style compliments the hilarious twists and turns of the plot to make it a goofy but heart wrenching page-turner.

The year is post 2008 and the company Deruiter works for in Seattle folds. She’s flailing about, at loose ends, staying in her pajamas all day and eating anything she can get her hands on before her husband makes a little suggestion that turns out to be big suggestion. Husband Rand travels all over the world to attend business conferences. In order to be together, he suggests she join him on his trips and begin a blog about it. It becomes a kind of anti-travel blog since she has no plans and no sense of direction and has to force herself out of the hotel wherever she lands.

This little blog turns into a big deal when Time Magazine names it one of the top 25 blogs of the year (2011 by this time). DeRuiter turns her family history inside out and amid all her misadventures, makes sense of her life. You can’t not love this story and all of her colorful relatives: all while getting glimpses of a Seattle that any native will appreciate.

This is the perfect book to read (or to give) this time of year when you may be spending time with your own relatives, some of which you may not understand very well. The chaos and anxiety, as well as the love and resolution in this book may even help you embrace those relatives that you’d normally cross the street to avoid.

I would never in a million years do this: dive to the depths of the ocean in search of shipwrecks; then, once found, weave through the wreckage to find clues as to why it sunk. I’ve seen enough stuff on TV and in the movies to know it’s no picnic under the waves. And when things go wrong, they go horribly wrong. Plus, there are all those giant squid watching you with their bowling-ball sized eyes. I know this from Discovery Channel specials I should never have watched.

Mattera and Chatterton scuttle their plans for a major dive after they are contacted by a world-renown and very successful treasure hunter (we’ll call him Mr. Smarty-pants) who is obsessed with finding the lost ship of John Bannister, pirate extraordinaire. The divers will get a cut of what they find, but there is a short window of opportunity to find it. The Dominican Republic is on the verge of signing the UNESCO international treaty that would put a stop to private shipwreck hunting in their waters.

The Golden Fleece is the holy grail of pirate shipwrecks. It sunk in June of 1686 when Bannister and his crew fought a two-day battle with two British warships. England had been embarrassed many times by Bannister and they were determined to put an end to his pirate shenanigans. But Bannister wasn’t captured and the Royal Navy ships limped back to England, further adding to Bannister’s swashbuckling reputation.

The only thing is, the two divers agree to search only where Mr. Smarty-pants says the shipwreck of the Golden Fleece must be. So, with their state of the art equipment and two other experts on board, they comb the waters off the white sandy beaches of Cayo Levantado for months and months and months. They start running out of time and money and realize they’re never going to find the wreckage if they continue to do what Mr. Smarty-pants tells them to do. Mattera decides to strikes out on his own and uncovers clues that point in another direction. He finds these clues IN A LIBRARY(!!) and they are able to pinpoint where the wreckage lies.

This is a choppy but satisfying ride of a book. You don’t have to be a good swimmer to enjoy it and you may even find yourself holding your breath in a couple of places. And those giant squid? Turns out, they’re only in the really, really deep ocean. Can you blame me for reading between the bubbles?

Of the many great things about visiting the library, one of my favorites is being able to browse the collection. You can throw caution to the wind and select a title based on whimsical things like the look of a cover, an interesting title or even the number of pages. Blame it on the whole ‘being a librarian thing’ but I usually like to do a bit of research on a title before borrowing it. Every so often, however, I succumb and just can’t resist a title I see while out in the stacks. Happily, a recent impulse borrow introduced me to a really great book.

The basis of the book is Fox’s three year journey traveling along the U.S. and Canadian border from Maine to Washington. But this work isn’t a simple travelogue (even though the characters and incidents he encounters would be worth reading about on their own). Instead, the author intersperses his travel experiences with the surprisingly contentious history of the border as well as contemporary issues unique to each northern region that he visits. In this way, Fox brings out a lot of intriguing and vital facts about this often forgotten border that you may not know:

12 % of Americans live 100 miles from the border, 90% of Canadians do.

A 2010 Congressional Research services report stated that U.S. Customs and Border Protection maintains “operational control” over just 69 miles of the 3,987 mile border.

The border cuts the Akwesasne Mohawk Indian reservation, Niagara Falls and the Haskell Free Library and Opera House in two.

In the end, however, the human element is what makes this book so worthwhile. Whether visiting with lodge owners in Maine, bulk carrier captains on the Great Lakes, fishing guides and adventurers in Northern Minnesota, members of the Sioux nation protesting the XL TransCanada pipeline in North Dakota, or the leader of a ‘constitutional militia’ in Idaho, Fox captures the unique feel of sharing a border and the experiences of those living in the Northlands.

Like this:

Is it just me or is summer flying by? It seems like only yesterday I was skipping through puddles and waiting for my rhododendrons to bloom. Now my lawn is a lovely crispy beige and the rhodies already have their blooms poised for next year. If you’re equally puzzled as to how we’re already in August, I’ve got a challenge for you: let’s get out of here and take a road trip! Sound good? Great! Here are the books we need to get us where we want to go.

If you don’t have the time or budget or love of road food, staying close to home probably appeals the most. That’s where Discovering Seattle Parks: a Local’s Guide by Linnea Westerlind steps in to help, taking you neighborhood by neighborhood through all the Seattle parks, big and small. Packed with maps and full-color photographs, this handy little book is full of detailed information to help you plan your day trip to one of Seattle’s parks. Whether you’re looking for trails or where to let your dog run free, you’ll find it here. There are also special call-outs for accessible access, which is so important when exploring an unknown locale. And if you’re looking for public art, gardens, or even spots of historical significance, you’ll be able to see just which parks best suit your needs.

Got the time and cash to go further? You’ll want to pick up The Road Trip Book: 1001 Drives of a Lifetime. With glossy full-color pages and covering over 100 countries, it’s quite a hefty book. But if you want to explore somewhere you’ve never been before this is your go-to resource for trip planning. It’s not all international roads, however. In Washington alone, you can discover Chuckanut Drive from Burlington to Bellingham, Mountains to Sound from Ellensburg to Seattle, a loop around Mt. Rainier that starts and ends in Enumclaw, the Chinook Scenic Byway from Enumclaw to Naches, Lake Washington Shoreline Drive from Seward Park to Washington Park Arboretum (use in tandem with Discovering Seattle’s Parks for bonus points!), Spirit Lake Memorial Highway from Castle Rock to Johnston Ridge Observatory, and the Lewis and Clark Trial Highway from Clarkston to Cape Disappointment. If you really want to stay as close to home as possible, you’ll want to try the Cascade Loop that starts and ends right here in familiar yet beautiful Everett.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. “Carol! What about food? Isn’t one of the best things about road trips getting to cheat on your diet and explore local cuisines?” To which I say: you look perfect the way you are, and absolutely YES. Let Daym Drops in Eating Across America be your guide to deliciousness in every state. This book goes past where other American food books end. The first half of the book completely sells you on why you should give these small eateries a try. Food carts, food trucks (yes there’s a difference!), cheap eats, hole in the wall restaurants, and learning to trust your taste buds are all given due consideration. The second half maps and reviews the hell out of these tasty food stops and also gives you one dish to look for in each state; so you know you’re going to get an authentic local experience at every stop on your journey. For Washington it’s cedar plank salmon, which should really come as no surprise to locals. But if you weren’t from Washington would you know that this is the dish to try?

Of course, no road trip would be complete without something to keep you occupied between stops on your expedition. I’ve found that music can be extremely polarizing, and the more people you have in your vehicle the more difficult it is to agree on music. Books and podcasts, however, tend to bring everyone together. Your library creates podcasts regularly and I think everyone should at least try one episode of each: The Lone Reader, Mr. Neutron’s Record Closet, and The Treatment Film Reviews. On the second floor of the downtown library and on shelf at the Evergreen Branch you’ll find audiobooks on CD as well as Playways. And did you know that the fastest-growing format in popularity in the country is downloadable audiobooks? What’s more, you have access to literally thousands with your library card via OverDrive/Libby and cloudLibrary.

One really awesome local thing happening this summer you should have on your radar: the Washington Center for the Book is running A Passport to Washington Libraries. Once you register on the site, visit 5 Washington libraries, 2 of which must be 50+ miles from your home. Each visit you post a photo and put it on their map. This challenge runs through September 15th, after which they’ll draw winners for bookstore gift cards. I have only visited one non-EPL library so far (shout out to the awesome writing workshop I took at Mountlake Terrace Library last month!) but I plan to visit more. I’ve seen some really cool photos on the map from EPL, so I know some of you are already hip to this, but we could always use more passport photos!

So who’s with me? Let’s have one last hurrah before school starts, the weather cools, and we forget what it’s like to feel like a human baked potato roasting slowly in the heat.

The last time we sat here together I gave you a big list of books my coworkers absolutely adore. But wait, there’s more! Because you can never have enough good books to read, here are some more EPL staff recommended reads to help you accomplish the May reading challenge.

The Tricksters Series by Tamora Pierce
I love many of Tamora Pierce’s novels, but I have to say that her Tricksters series might be my favorite. Trickster’s Choice and Trickster’s Queenfollow Aly – the daughter of legendary lady knight Alanna – on her quest to become a spy in the realm of Tortall. When she sets out on her adventures, however, she has no idea that her fate will be influenced by the Trickster god, who has his own plans for her.

These books are such a fun read filled with strong, intelligent, and highly loveable characters, as well as battles, magic, and political intrigue. If you haven’t read any of the other books in Tamora Pierce’s Tortall Universe, these will definitely make you want to!–From Elizabeth W., Evergreen Branch Circulation

Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder.
If you are in the mood for a non-fiction read, pick up Nomadland. Bruder explores the mostly hidden world of America’s citizens, many of whom are of retirement age, currently living in a vast fleet of improvised mobile homes. From cleverly retrofitted cars to full-size RVs, people who are unable to afford the cost of living in conventional housing have increasingly turned to the road to find home and work. Bruder spent years following this story, first interviewing some of these mobile-dwellers, and then eventually embedding herself in some of their seasonal communities to gain a more intimate perspective. This book is well researched and well written; though it almost has the depth of an anthropological field study, the personal narratives that are interwoven give the whole piece a lot of emotional appeal.–From Lisa, Northwest Room

Since her dad abandoned her family, a teen girl’s extreme anxiety keeps her inside her home (she physically reacts to leaving the house) until one day she finds herself outside and begins working towards freeing herself from a prison of her brain’s own making. As someone who’s always struggled with anxiety I probably got more out of the main character’s struggles than others. Still, I think anyone into quirky romantic comedies with a hefty dose of problematic situations should pick this up.–From Carol, Main Library Cataloging

The Monk of Mokha by Dave Eggers
The incredibly inspiring true story of a striving, young Yemeni-American man who learns of his ancestral homeland’s critical connection to the world’s favorite addictive beverage. This inspires him to work from abject poverty on the mean streets of San Francisco through a civil war in Yemen. This thrillingly contemporary book will make you love the character as much as you shake your head in disbelief over what he has to overcome even from the TSA at the airport.–From Alan, Evergreen Branch Manager

The Leopard at the Doorby Jennifer McVeigh
I’m reading a good book right now called The Leopard at the Door by Jennifer McVeigh. Here’s the summary from the catalog:
“Set in Kenya against the fading backdrop of the British Empire, a story of self-discovery, betrayal, and an impossible love. After six years in England, Rachel has returned to Kenya and the farm where she spent her childhood, but the beloved home she’d longed for is much changed. Her father’s new companion–a strange, intolerant woman–has taken over the household. The political climate in the country grows more unsettled by the day and is approaching the boiling point. And looming over them all is the threat of the Mau Mau, a secret society intent on uniting the native Kenyans and overthrowing the whites. As Rachel struggles to find her place in her home and her country, she initiates a covert relationship, one that will demand from her a gross act of betrayal.”–From Leslie, Main Library Youth Services

Moon Calledby Patricia Briggs
Are you looking for a new series? Moon Called by Patricia Briggs, shelved in Science Fiction, is the first book in the Mercy Thompson series. It’s one of my all-time favorite book series, and the only series I can read and get completely sucked in each and every time!–From Feylin, Main Library Circulation

A Whole Lifeby Robert Seethaler
Andreas Egger’s mother died when he was a young boy, and he was shipped off to live with his aunt’s husband in a German alpine town in the early 1900s. As the title indicates, this is the story of a life, and it spans about 80 years in which we see Andreas getting whipped with a hazel switch, standing up to his abusive guardian, taking on work building lifts for the burgeoning ski industry, finding love, going to war on the Russian front, surviving painful losses, and watching the modern world transform all around him.
Seethaler is a fluid, at times lyrical, storyteller, who shifts parts of the tale around chronologically to effectively share the life of this humble, resourceful, but also lonely man. The story draws you in immediately as Andreas relates how he found an old goatherd dying in his hut in 1933 and attempts to carry him through a snowstorm down the mountains to the village. This anecdote ends in a surprising way and comes back in haunting fashion much later in this moving and finely rendered tale.–From Scott, Main Library Adult Services

Dearest Reader, I have a special treat for you today. I caught up with Seattle-based blogger Geraldine DeRuiter, aka The Everywhereist, and asked her all the things. Not only is her first book, All Over the Place, currently making its way through the holds queues, but you’ll have a chance to meet her June 13th at 6pm at the downtown library! As you count down the days to her Everett debut, you can read this interview where she tells me everything from what she’s reading now to what it takes to get published, not to mention some sweet mustache styling tips from her husband, Rand.

You have a lot of fans on staff at the library! When we chat about your blog posts, the ones that keep coming up are deeply personal. How do you tackle writing about such personal things? Which we love. Please never stop!
Honestly, writing about personal things helps me process a lot of what I’m dealing with. Sitting down and typing out those experiences – particularly negative ones – helps me exorcise those demons. The other thing to remember is that I share a lot – but it’s still only what I’m comfortable sharing. I still have some strong boundaries, despite the personal blog posts.

How do you cope with so many strangers knowing so much about your personal life? Was that just a part of blogging you accepted or did you/your family have to get used to it (or can you ever truly get used to it)?
My husband, Rand, is very open about his life online, so I think I became acclimated to the idea long before I was sharing my own stories. Still, it sometimes catches me by surprise when someone knows something personal about me that I shared on the blog. My initial reaction is, “How did you hear about that?” And then I realize: “Oh, yeah. I posted it on the internet.” As for my family, they seem to have accepted it, though they keep threatening to write their own memoirs.

Like all of your readers, we followed your health scares with worried anticipation. What’s it like knowing thousands of people are more curious about your health than their own?
The response to my posts about my brain tumor were incredibly supportive and loving – I’m still in awe at people’s reactions. And while it felt a bit overwhelming to have shared the experience with so many people, it was also a great distraction from the surgery itself. A big part of why I wanted to write about it is that I found a complete lack of material online about what it was actually like to have brain surgery. So I wrote the post that I wish I’d had beforehand – and I’ve found that those posts still get lots of traffic and comments from people facing the same thing.

Obviously, the internet is full of blogs and it takes something special to truly make a blog stand out from the crowd. Do you have any advice for someone thinking about starting a blog?
When starting out, consistency is key. It doesn’t matter if you blog once a day or once a week, just make sure you do it regularly, and that your audience can rely on it. And pick a specific topic. I meet a lot of bloggers who don’t want to tie themselves down to one subject, but doing so really helps you to focus and develop an audience. Once you’ve got regular readers, you can start to branch out into other subject areas.

I always ask authors what the publishing process is like. Did you just decide to start writing a book, were you approached to write it, or did something else start you down the road to publishing?
I knew I wanted to write a book, but I was feeling frustrated with the hunt for an agent (and you need an agent if you are going to go the traditional publishing route) so I just told myself that I’d start working on a manuscript and see what happened. I managed to secure a small publisher who was interested in my book, but they folded, and I was left with a near-completed manuscript and no idea what to do next. So I decided to take a break and get back to freelancing. I wrote an article about my husband dressing me for a week and it caught the attention of my now-agent, Zoe. And it ended up going to auction, with multiple publishers bidding on it. Which still feels sort of miraculous.

One of my favorite things is when a favorite blogger writes a book. Does your new book cover topics similar to those you’ve blogged about or are you taking readers in a totally different direction?
One of the hardest things I had to learn is that writing a book is not the same as writing a blog. And while fans of the blog will [find] the voice, tone, and personality of the book familiar, the content is all new. So I’d say it’s the same Geraldine, but a new format.

Do you have a dedicated office or writing space? Please describe it; I’m obsessed with workspaces and how people work!
I have a little lofted space at the top of the townhouse that we rent, and I have a standing desk (which helps to mitigate my headaches – even after my surgery, I still get them, and spending hours at a computer does not help). While I’m a pretty neat and tidy person about most things, I’m somewhat embarrassed to say that my office is constantly a disaster, so I usually avoid showing it to people.

Can you offer any advice for writers aspiring to become published? I bet you get that question a lot but it seems like everyone’s experience is unique.
Build an online platform and audience. I can’t stress this enough. Publishers want to know that you’ll be able to sell your book. They will want to know your Twitter follower count, your blog’s traffic, even how many Instagram followers you have. You can get published without an online following, but as my editor put it, “You’d better be a damn literary genius.” And even then, she noted, it’s still a hard sell.

What are you reading right now?
I’m actually reading a lot of books by people I know, which is a very new experience for me (being a published author is weird). I just finished Losing the Light, by my friend Andrea Dunlop (I devoured it over the weekend, and I’m a notoriously slow reader, so that says a lot). And I’m about to crack into Jo Piazza’s How to Be Married. She’s hilarious, so I suspect her book will be, too.

Do you have any upcoming projects or adventures you’d like to share with our readers?
I’m talking to my agent about my next book, but that’s a long way off (and I have a lot of research I’ll need to do for it). I’ve got some promoting to do for All Over the Place so I’ve got some travel planned around that, and I’m trying to get back to blogging.

One of our staff bloggers, Jennifer, has a final, burning question: does Rand have any mustache tips for the dapper among us?
Jennifer, are you sitting down? Okay, are you sure you’re sitting down? Because … Rand shaved off the handlebar mustache. I mean, he still has a mustache, but the handlebars are a thing of the past. I know. I know. But honestly, the upkeep was crazy – he spent more time on his ‘stache than anything else. So the advice I’d give anyone who’s considering growing one out: buy some mustache wax, and leave yourself a lot of time.

If you want to live, you gotta eat. A pretty basic truth and one we tend to take for granted. While gourmands argue about what wine to pair with what fish and health gurus debate the merits of protein vs carbs, a lot of the interesting questions about food go unanswered: Why do we eat what we eat? Why do certain peoples and regions eat different things? What the heck is a ‘square meal’ and where did it come from? Luckily, if you want to find answers to these questions and more, the Everett Public Library is the place to be. There are actually a large number of works on the history of food and eating that are fascinating and help you appreciate this seemingly basic human need. Read on for a few choice examples.

A History of Food in 100 Recipes by William Sitwell
Taking a pleasingly micro approach to the history of food, Sitwell lays out a fascinating chronology, based on actual recipes, that demonstrates the evolution of food preparation and our eating habits. Everything from Ancient Egyptian bread (1958-1913 BCE), Dried Fish (800 AD), Soufflé (1816) and Rice Krispies Treats (1941) are covered. Far from just a collection of eccentric dishes, however, this work is full of interesting insights into why and what we eat.

Consider the Fork: a History of How We Cook and Eatby Bee Wilson
Instead of focusing on the food itself, this work tracks the history of cooking through the technologies used to create the dishes we eat. While we tend to take for granted many seemingly simple kitchen implements (like the knife, the rice cooker and the egg timer) Wilson describes the surprisingly complicated and significant histories behind them.

Sweet Invention: a History of Dessert by Michael Krondl
Whether you believe dessert is the last part of a meal or a meal in itself, this book will prove entertaining and informative reading. Part history and part travelogue, Krondl travels the globe talking with confectioners and examining the dessert traditions of different cultures and countries and how they evolved over time.

British Food: An Extraordinary Thousand Years of History by Colin Spencer
One of the most vilified cuisines deserves an extraordinary and entertaining history; Spencer does not disappoint in this engaging work. The ups, yes there were ups, and downs of Britain’s food reputation are lovingly cataloged. Interestingly, the author charts the most recent downturn to the Victorian period when raw food was frowned upon and every foodstuff imaginable was boiled.

Three Squares: The Invention of the American Meal by Abigail Carroll
More than a history of breakfast, lunch, and dinner in America, Carroll traces the evolution of eating habits in the United States from the colonial era to the present day. As with much U.S. history, the one constant appears to be change itself. The biggest change turns out to be the industrial revolution and its regularization of the workday, leaving dinner as the only time available for a proper sit down meal with the family.

Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir of Love and Longing by Anya Von Bremzen
A fascinating memoir and history told through classic Soviet dishes. The author was raised in a communal apartment with 18 other people and one kitchen before immigrating to the United States with her mother in the 1970s. Now the author of several international cookbooks, this is the tale of her upbringing and the food so closely associated with it.

Rice, Noodle, Fish: Deep Travels Through Japan’s Food Culture by Matt Goulding
Part travel guide and part food history, this book explores the deep and complicated food culture of Japan. Goulding travels throughout the country visiting the many different restaurants (including ramen, tempura, soba and sushi shops) exploring the food and history of each. The author is also not shy about giving recommendations of which restaurants to go to and which to avoid.

Dining with the Famous and Infamous by Fiona Ross
Taking food history to a personal level, Ross sets out to discover the eating habits of many interesting contemporary and historical figures. From George Orwell to Marilyn Monroe, the individual eating habits of the great and no so great are explored. This collection of food voyeurism is a guilty pleasure but impossible to ignore.

I hope you have enjoyed this small sampling of the many great works available on food, dinning and their history here at the library. Reading might actually burn calories so no need to worry about overindulgence.